The Ru River flows through the south of Shujiazhuang, and the banks of the river are full of green rice and wheat fields. The Shi family, the largest scholar family in Ruyin, has a lot of land, there are 1,800 acres on this river bank alone, and there is a large manor in the northeast corner of this field. The thousands of acres of land are divided into two parts, east and west, with paddy fields in the east and a dry field in the west, planted with mulberry trees and wheat seedlings in between. In the middle of the paddy field and the dry field, there are 20 acres of land of the Shu family and 10 acres of land of the Han family.

In May, the fields of Shujiazhuang are green, and the seedlings are growing vigorously. Shu An and Han Ning were working in their fields. Shu Yan and Zhixin play on the edge of the field. Both of them wore red flax belly pockets, and their hair was loose and naturally drooped to the cheeks. The two children have been in love since childhood, like brothers and sisters. Xiao Zhixin likes Xiao Shuyan very much, and always hugs and hugs happily when she sees Shu Yan. Five or six-year-old children always do whatever they like, and never pay attention to etiquette or indecency.

When Zhixin was two or three years old, she occasionally cried, and her mother fed her, gave her water to drink, slept with her, and walked back and forth with her arms. Han Ning had no choice, so he brought Shu Yan over. Zhixin caught a glimpse of Shu Yan in her teary eyes, and immediately stopped crying, burst into laughter, and muttered inarticulately: "Yan-brother-brother." "The adults in both families thought it was funny.

Now they're older, and they don't use people much to coax them. The adults worked, and the two of them played on the ground by themselves - grabbing the mud on the ground with their hands, each making a small clay figure, and moving the position of the little clay figure from time to time, standing face to face for a while, and sitting side by side for a while.

Shu An and Han Ning looked at the two drooping children and asked strangely, "What are you two doing?" ”

Zhixin said seriously: "This is Brother Yan and Zhixin when they grow up, they are married in the church." ”

The two adults were amused by Zhixin's innocent fairy words: "Why do you want to go to the church to get married? ”

"Because after two people get married, they can play together forever."

"Oh, then you two are so young, it's too early to grow up, who will regret it and don't want to marry each other?"

"Why do you want to go back?" Zhixin's eyes widened, said innocently and seriously, and then turned her head to ask Shu Yan, "Brother Yan, will you marry me?" ”

Shu Yan also put on a serious look: "Yes, I will definitely marry Sister Zhixin." ”

Listening to the two milky children saying their vows in milky voices, Shu An and Han Ning only felt funny, and thought: The two children, I'm afraid that they will forget about this matter before they finish replacing their baby teeth.

In the distance, a black carriage came, pulled by two horses, surrounded by several maidservants and maidservants, followed by many servants. When the group came to the Shi family's manor, the black carriage stopped, a man wearing a crown of rolled beams and a tulle coat got out of the car, and a servant held a parasol behind him. Then an old maid hugged a little boy of five or six years old. The little boy was also wearing a red belly pocket, but not a hemp belly pocket, but a high-quality red silk belly pocket. As soon as the little boy got out of the car, a mother-in-law in the back hurriedly held a parasol and followed all the way. Just as he was about to enter the garden gate, the little boy caught a glimpse of Shu Yan and Zhixin, and motioned for the old maid to stop and turn to this side. The man with the curly beam crown followed.

Tian Fu, the head of the Shi family's manor, hurriedly greeted him, knelt down and gave a salute: "How can the head of the family have time to come to the countryside today." ”

Shi Huizheng didn't look at him at all: "The little boy is impatient to stay at home and wants to come out for a walk." ”

The head of the Grange got up playfully and stood aside.

"How's the crop going this year?"

"The head of the family, Hong Fu, the wheat in the wheat field has grown very well this year, the ears of wheat are particularly large, and the mulberry leaves in the mulberry garden are also extremely fat." Tian Fu pointed his finger into the distance again, "Also, look at that piece of rice, it is so green and black, and it is very vigorous." ”

"Hey, whose little field is between my two plots of land?"

Tian Zhuangtou took a step closer, pointed at Shu An and Han Ning with his hand, and whispered: "It's Dr. Shu's family and Han Ning's family in Shujiazhuang." ”

"Hmm, Dr. Shu." Shi Hui is observing the surrounding terrain. Shu An and Han Ning's fields are close to the river, where the water is not slow or urgent, and the terrain is very good.

The little boy in his arms was very happy to see the wild scenery in early summer, broke free and came to Shu Yan and Zhixin. The three children in red belly pockets looked at each other for a moment.

Zhixin asked, "Who are you?" ”

"Who are you?"

"If you don't tell us who you are, we don't tell you who we are."

The little boy of the Shi family is used to being lonely in a wealthy family, although he is pampered by everyone like the stars holding the moon, but he is not happy. This time I can be regarded as having a playmate, and I cherish it more, and I don't care who reports my name first: "My name is Shi De." ”

"Shide? Why the name? ”

"My father said that if you have giving, you will receive, so I call her almsgiving."

"My name is Han Zhixin."

"My name is Shu Yan."

Shu An saw that it was Shi Gongzi and suddenly realized. I remembered that the child in front of me was six years ago, on the day when the seven-colored clouds appeared in the sky, the children born with Shu Yan and Zhixin are now six years old, with the same hairstyle, the same red belly pocket, and the same size, but one was born in a wealthy family of the Shi family, and two were born in the Han family of the Shu family.

Xiao Shide saw the two clay figurines on the ground and asked, "Who made these two clay figurines?" What are they doing? ”

Zhixin said: "I did it with Brother Yan, and the two of them are getting married." ”

Shi De asked again: "Who is married to whom?" ”

"Of course it's me and Brother Yan."

Shi De thinks it's a lot of fun to get married. At least there will be someone to play with him, and he will not be lonely anymore, "I also want to marry Zhixin." ”

As he spoke, he grabbed the soil on the ground and made his own clay figurine by following the appearance of Shu Yan's clay figurine.

When his father saw him grabbing the dirt, he scolded, "De'er, what are you doing? The people of our wealthy families are as clean as jade, how can we grasp the dirt? ”

The old maid hurriedly came over and hugged Shi De. Shi De saw that someone was blocking him, and his clay figure couldn't be done, so he grabbed the clay figure on the ground in a fit of anger and fell down, and smashed the clay figure in one fell swoop.

"You accompany me clay man." Zhixin was so anxious that she cried, "I still want to marry Brother Yan." ”

Shi De saw that Zhixin was crying, as if he also felt that he had done something wrong, sorry for his little friend, and was stunned. He suddenly remembered that there were a lot of good things around him. It turned out that when the little master of the Shi family went out, the old servants had to carry a lot of things with them: cheese, fruits, dried fruits, mosquito repellent water, pu fans, umbrellas, vanilla pillows for sleeping at any time, fur cushions, and various toys. He casually took out a small green jade figure from the toy box, which was about the size of the clay figure he had broken.

"Don't cry, I'm not going to let me play with the mud, I can't accompany you with the clay man, so I'll accompany you here."

Shi Hui was a little surprised, but he didn't stop him. Although this little jade man is worth a lot of money, it is just a drop in the bucket in his family, as long as his son likes it, he will give it away.

Shu An and Han Ning were surprised, they thought to themselves: Although the Shi family is rich, they must not ask him for such a valuable thing, just wanted to stop it, but heard Zhixin say: "I don't want this green stone man of yours, I want a clay figure - two identical clay figures." ”

"Isn't my little jade figure better than your little clay figure?"

"Not strong, not good". Zhixin shouted, "A stone man and a clay figure can't play together, and they can't get married!" ”

At this time, Han Ning saw Zhixin crying and screaming because of this trivial matter, and as a father, he felt very shameless, so he hurriedly came over and scolded: "Zhixin, don't mess around." ”

Shi Hui was upset, so she ignored the little girl and walked away with her son, but she was afraid that her son would be unhappy. After hesitating for a while, he suddenly remembered that he had a fruit box beside him, and he said to Zhixin: "Little girl, do you like Brother Yan?" Do you think this is good, I have a box of fruits here, very delicious and delicious fruits, I promise you haven't eaten them, can you take them to your brother Yan to eat? ”

Han Ning saw that the other party gave a box of fruits, so he was embarrassed to refuse.

Zhixin pouted, looking disdainful. But the child is a child after all, maybe the fragrance of the fruit is too tempting, when she saw a box full of unnamed fruits, she took it and smiled at Shu Yan, and immediately expressed her forgiveness.

A group of people in the Shi family gradually drifted away, and only Shi De looked back reluctantly.

Shu An and Han Ning thought at first: Children are children after all, what kind of mountain alliance and sea vows, a box of fruits will forget about getting married. When they saw this box full of rare and exotic fruits, they were also stunned, not to mention that the two children couldn't name the fruits, and even the adults present couldn't name them. Under the conditions at that time, except for the wealthy families, how could ordinary people have the opportunity to see these things - fruits from the south, dried fruits from the north, and Hu Guo from the Western Regions.

They took the box of fruit home and distributed it to the villagers on the way, and when they returned home, there was not much left. Dr. Shu had eaten these fruits when he was in the capital, except for Dr. Shu, the people of Shujiazhuang had eaten these strange fruits for the first time: those with the kernel were swallowed raw, and those with the skin were bitten with the skin. Thanks to Dr. Shu's guidance, I didn't waste all these things that are rare to eat once in a lifetime.

Shi De returned home, pouting, sullen, and the people did not dare to provoke him. There was a garden behind his house, but he was tired of playing with it, after all, no matter how big a garden is, it is not as large as the wild.

He entered the compound of the deep house and met his mother. His mother's maiden family is not ordinary, it is a branch of the famous Wang clan of Langya in the Jin Dynasty, which is much more famous than the Shi family. Seeing his unhappy look, Mrs. Wang asked, "You should be happy when you go out to play today, why are you unhappy when you come back?" Who provoked you? ”

No one messed with him, he messed with others, but he was just unhappy. He begged his mother, "Tomorrow I want to go to the manor to play." ”

Mrs. Wang smiled and said, "My son didn't have enough fun in the wild, is it because he is unhappy?" ”

"Hmm."

"Isn't that easy? Wouldn't you just go tomorrow? ”

Shi Hui said angrily: "Nonsense! Don't go! ”

Shi Dewa cried.

Mrs. Wang said angrily: "Don't scare the child, won't you say anything slowly?" Besides, what's not to do if a child wants to go to the manor to play? It's a big deal to destroy a few crops, what is it worth! ”

"It's good to destroy a few crops, the problem is that he didn't destroy the crops. Instead, he went to play with the children of the poor family, and dug the mud with his hands, and the most hateful thing was to be a mud man and marry the little girl from the poor family! Do you think this is what a child of the noble clan should do? ”

"How can it be!" When Mrs. Wang heard that her son was going to be a clay figure and marry a poor girl, she was very angry, so she transferred part of her anger towards her husband to her son, but she couldn't help feeling sorry for her son, and softened her breath: "Son, you Ah Weng is right." Shishu is different, don't you know? Our wealthy family of the Shi clan, unless we have to, never associate with the Shu family. And you, actually digging mud with your hands, and marrying someone from a poor family, this will make people laugh. You're young and ignorant now, it's okay, you can't do such a stupid thing when you grow up, do you hear? ”

Shi is so young that he doesn't understand what is wrong with the cold door. It's just that he can't get married, he can't even make friends, he doesn't know why, but his parents' strict and serious words make him feel that this matter seems to be very serious. He didn't know what to do. In fact, he didn't want to do anything, he just wanted to have fun with Shu Yan and Zhixin.

The Shi family invited a gentleman to Shi De, this gentleman's surname is Zhu, and Mr. Zhu's erudition is also well-known in Ruyin County. Now Mr. Zhu is teaching him to read the Analects. Shi De's understanding is also excellent, although he is not as diligent as Shi Yan, and he has proficient insights, but he can also recite fluently. After studying the Analects, I now begin to study the Book of Songs.

Although he has good understanding, he cannot endure hardship. In winter, I can't get out of bed in the morning, and in summer I have to take a nap at noon. When it's cold, I'm afraid of freezing, and when it's hot, I'm afraid of heat. I only study for an hour or two a day. Although Mr. Zhu was in a hurry, he had no choice, and in desperation, he thought: Just be happy, anyway, the children of the wealthy families will not worry about having no way out in the future.